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Longtime entertainer Mickey Rooney dies at age 93

By Adam BernsteinThe Washington Post

Posted:
04/06/2014 10:28:18 PM MDT

Updated:
04/06/2014 10:53:10 PM MDT

Actor Mickey Rooney and wife Jan at the cocktail party during the 14th annual Screen Actors Guild awards held at the Shrine Auditorium on January 27, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. (Kevin Winter, Getty Images North America)

Mickey Rooney, the irrepressible actor of seemingly limitless skills who personified the all-American teenager in movie musicals with Judy Garland and dozens of other comedies and dramas, has died at 93.

The trade publication Variety confirmed the death with multiple sources. No date or cause of death was immediately available.

Rooney, once among the world's top box-office stars, could sing, dance, play drums and do impersonations. He began his career at 15 months in his parents' vaudeville act and never really retired.

He was often paired with Garland — considered his equal in charisma and ability — in top-quality musicals such as "Babes in Arms" (1939) and "Girl Crazy" (1943). In addition, he was powerful in dramas including "Boys Town" (1938), portraying a juvenile delinquent, and "The Human Comedy" (1943), as a small-town telegraph messenger who delivers news of war casualties to parents back home.

He also starred as Andy Hardy in the popular "Hardy Family" film series about an Ohio teenager growing up.

Rooney won special Academy Awards awards in 1939 and 1983.

On television, Rooney received an Emmy Award nomination for playing a rotten-to-the-core entertainer in Rod Serling's "The Comedian" (1957). He also won an Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a limited series or a special for "Bill" (1981), about a mentally disabled man struggling with life outside an institution.

Rooney appeared in more than 300 films and TV programs, in addition to his work in radio, recording, nightclubs and commercials. Although he stayed busy, his career suffered many reversals.

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He was just over 5 feet tall, and his physical stature seemed to limit his film roles as he aged.

He also tended toward erratic behavior off-screen. His gambling and drug addictions and eight marriages — including one to then-starlet Ava Gardner — left him with debts he struggled to pay.

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